The Pittsburgh Planning Commission held a hearing on the
Oakland Portal project last Tuesday. Is it a done
deal? Important concerns
of Oakland residents were blatantly ignored, but this project will
impact every resident of the city of Pittsburgh, especially those who enter
or exit Oakland. Next Tuesday’s hearing will allow
testimony only from the developer; no testimony is allowed by any Pittsburgh community
representatives or residents. This is unjust.

I requested an honest and
comprehensive in-depth Impact Statement at last Tuesday’s
hearing. This request was ignored. Following the hearing I approached
the Chairwoman and two members of the Commission to ask if they have
the authority to request an Impact Statement. Incredibly, they
said that they did not know. I also received the impression
that they did not care to know.

One aspect of the developer’s proposal will add parking for
274 vehicles that will further strain an already horrible traffic gridlock
problem. However, 274 vehicles may be more than
the law allows for the
first phase of this project, but there was no discussion by the Commission
of this potential illegality. The developer has subsequent phases planned
that would increase the number of vehicles to nearly 800.

To the best
of my knowledge council members have given no testimony in support of
the residents of Pittsburgh in spite of the fact that the project will
be of far greater benefit to UPMC and Pitt than to those residents. If
this project is approved, it could very well trigger
a class-action lawsuit against the Pittsburgh City Council, the mayor, the Pittsburgh Planning
Commission and the developer, among others.

One part of last week’s
hearing stands out as particularly troubling. Oakland residents requested
that there be a set number of minority-owned and women-owned businesses
for the retail and hotel space. The Chairwoman of the commission read
written testimony from the developer which said: “Due to the high
quality of this development, the use of this development by professional,
medical and educational users would not permit
anything but high end retail tenants who would be desirous to serve these particular users.
As the saying goes ‘one bad apple spoils the barrel.’ It
would not be worth our while to take one bad tenant to jeopardize the
success of the development.” The Chairwoman wasn’t certain
if this was a response to the community’s request, but there
was no discussion by commission members as to how many, if any, minority-owned
or women-owned businesses there would be.

The Oakland Portal project
is similar to when our community was betrayed three
years ago by this
council, the mayor, and the Planning Commission when Chancellor Mark
Nordenberg received approval for Pitt’s never-ending expansion
plans in Oakland. Further details of that shameful process are on Link
23 of the website www.oaklanddignity.com.

A class-action lawsuit by the
residents of Pittsburgh may be necessary to break the alliance between
Pittsburgh’s city government, Pitt, UPMC, and developers with the
resultant stranglehold that they have over the communities in Pittsburgh,
especially the Oakland community.